Nursing Reflection

Throughout my time on the Mother Baby Care Unit, I have faced many instances in which I have been able to reflect on both my patients and the care that I was providing them. One situation in particular that I found myself critically reflecting upon involved a new mother who was feeling slightly stressed about being discharged as her newborn son would not be going home with her. For confidentiality reasons, this patient will be given the pseudonym of Kayla for the remainder of this reflection.

The purpose of this essay is to reflect on my personal role in the inter-professional team and the delivery of healthcare that I have encountered during my duty as a health care assistant in one of the hospitals here in England. In accordance with the NMC (2002) Code of professional conduct, confidentiality shall be maintained and all names have been changed to protect identity. The purpose of reflection as stated by John's (1995) is to promote desirable practice through the practitioner's understanding and learning about his/her lived experiences. I have decided to reflect upon an incident with the nurse in charge in one of my shifts and in order to structure my reflection I

This essay will discuss a clinical skill in which I have become competent in practicing as a student nurse.

This objective will affect my future nursing practice because conducting physical head to toe assessments and obtaining vital signs is a different process when working with paediatric patients rather than adults. It is crucial to note any changes that I can catch throughout my assessments, and vital signs since paediatric patients might not be able to communicate with me if they feel any changes in their health. By understanding the anatomy and physiology, the developmental stages of children, and obtaining accurate vital signs and assessments, it will increase my knowledge, skill, ad judgment to successfully complete and distinguish any abnormities and changes during my assessments. Also, knowing the developmental stages and distraction therapy method techniques can help me provide thorough examinations and find ways to help my patients cope if they are feeling anxious and scared.

Critical reflection is an indispensable tool used in evidence based nursing practice. Critical reflection is often a difficult concept to define as all health professionals interpret it in diverse ways. However, one definition of critical reflection is the revision of nursing practice experience so that it can be described, analysed and evaluated to use that knowledge to improve on future practice (Bulman & Schutz, 2013). Critical reflection is essential for nursing practice because it ensures patient safety and provides holistic care. This assignment will discuss in further detail a description of an event, a reflection of thoughts and feelings and an evaluation of the positive and negative sides of the incident from both the nurse's and the patient's viewpoint and the consequences. Followed by an analysis of what can be taken away from the event to further improve future nursing practice as well as what can be done to improve one's own learning and develop an action plan using new knowledge.

The following essay is a reflective account on an event that I, a student nurse encountered whilst on my second clinical placement in my first year of study. The event took place in a Fountain Nursing Home in Granite City. I have chosen to give thought to the event described in this essay as I feel that it highlights the need for nurses to have effective communication skills especially when treating patients that are suffering with a mental illness. Upon arriving to the Nursing home for the second time on Thursday November 14,2013; assigned the same patient as before. On meeting my patient the first thing I noticed myself doing without even thinking about it was giving her a visual inspection. Before nursing school I never really looked at

The court of appeal held patients should not be viewed incapable of understanding medical matters, society has change capable adults are able to make autonomous decisions to determine their future. Likewise therapeutic privilege should not be abused in deciding what and how much to tell patients we need to ensure we support patients in their choices. Nurses more than ever need to ensure the duty we owe our patients is fully met the NMC Code Professional Conduct (2015) now specifies a duty of candour to patients. This encourages an open and honest relationship in all matters therefore when patients ask specific questions nurses have a duty to answer within their scope of experience. Following Montgomery (2014) nurses are required to consider what the average patient would want to know about treatment and the material risk, what a reasonable person in a given situation would want to know about any risks involved in treatment or should know. The nurse is required to provide enough information for the patient what significance to give these risks in light of their own values beliefs and desire to determine their own future this can only work if patient and nurse work in close partnership. This goes in hand with NMC code (2015) standard 2 to listen to people respond to concerns

This assignment will explore an encounter between a student nurse, a qualify nurse, a doctor, a physiotherapist as well as other multi-disciplinary team. The main purpose of this case study is to critically analyse and discuss the ethical, legal and professional implications that may arise when dealing with patients and patient’s family. The essay will especially focus on ethical principles, statue law, duty of care and professional values under the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2008) as well as the Code of Conduct and the importance of multi-disciplinary team (MDT) working in health and social care settings. In the United Kingdom all nurses and Midwives are governed by a professional body called Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). In order to protect the patient confidentiality, in accordance to (NMC, 2008) the patient alone will be given the pseudonym “Eve” throughout the case scenario.

Sue Fitzsimons, Ph.D., RN, senior vice president of patient services and CNO at Yale-New Haven Hospital during the Yale School of Nursing 2013 commencement address, said: "Rejoice in your work; never lose sight of the nursing leader you are now and the nursing leader you will become."

(AACN, 2008) When talking about representing a profession, nurses are wearing a professional image. That professional image brings individuals who are sick and unable to act as they might, to rely on those professionals to act on their behalf. Nurses need to exhibit their confidence and integrity as expected by the patients they care for. It is the nurse’s responsibility to support patient’s decisions, protect their rights and stand up for their best interests. As highly skilled advocates, nurses require strong critical reasoning and judgment, communication skills and ethical knowledge. Therefore, nurses are committed to lifelong learning.

Nurses should recognize or identify any harmful practices that could put the patient’s wellbeing at risk. To be a true advocate for the patient you must gain their full trust and should always make them feel comfortable enough to confide in you. I believe being the patient’s advocate should be one of the top values of being a

Nursing advocacy is a quite new idea, it started in the patient advocate movement of the 1970’s ( ). Its significance is reflected by its presence in various nursing bodies’ code of ethics. Despite this, concerns are raised as to the nature and degree of nursing advocacy. Nurses have testified failure as a result of them having to practice advocacy on behalf of the patients (). According to research done by British nurses, senior positions has indicated beliefs that the practice is prone to ambiguities and paradoxes that can lead to inter-professional conflict within the nursing sector. The issue is whether the nurses are in a position to execute such work or the work should be assigned to nurses under nursing’s professional associations. This research investigate and explain the difficulties and problems that nurse experience when advocating for their patients.

Amber, thanks you for providing your insight on this ethical discussion topic. As future advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), we have a duty to educate other healthcare professionals on the meaning of the ethical terminology, in hope that each individual can comprehends and understands how to apply these principals into his/her practices. Ethical philosophies for rationalization of standpoints are delivered as well as recommendations for unveiling errors to patients (Lachman, 2007).

As a student nurse, I did provide care according to the standards of practice and the nurses’ code of ethics and followed the hospital’s mission statement. For instance, I maintained clients confidentially, advocate for the clients, collaborated in every reasonable manner with my preceptor and other nurses in the unit to ensure the highest quality of client care, and provided compassionate care. Patients confidentially was maintained in this paper as well. I was really careful in providing any specific patient information that can harm the clients. I was careful in including information such as name, date of birth, age, sex and address. Also, during my preceptorship I did advocate for my patients. For example, I had a patient with a subdural hematoma who was discharged by the doctor; however, the patient still had a blood pressure 182/100, headache, and vision disturbance. I contacted the doctor about the patient’s signs and symptoms and revealed my concern that

The following reflection demonstrates my awareness for my own cultural influences. Through the cultural lenses of a student nurse and a tennis member. They have impacted the way I view others and is a guidance to my bicultural professional health care relationship.